Part 9 (1/2)
He began filling the gla.s.s again. Tomorrow night he'd shove his neckcloth into his mouth so he'd be unable to blurt all the irritating nonsense- ”I'll have one of those if you don't mind.”
Luke swung around, knocking bottles to the floor where they shattered. He was crouched, ready to spring- ”Sorry,” Jim said, holding up his hands. ”It's just me.”
Mortified by his reaction and his thudding heart, Luke straightened. He'd become too complacent. ”No one informed me that you were here.”
”I a.s.sumed you wouldn't want them to know. I slipped in on my own.” Jim took a step nearer. ”Are you all right? I've never been able to sneak up on you. You've always been too astute, too aware-”
”I was occupied with my thoughts.” Turning, Luke s.n.a.t.c.hed up a bottle. ”We're in luck. One didn't fall.” He began filling two gla.s.ses. ”I take it you have something to report.”
”Not really. She's rather boring.”
”Boring? Catherine Mabry? She's anything but boring. Are you certain you're following the right woman?”
Jim chuckled. ”I can't believe you asked me that. I'm the very best at what I do, and well you know it.”
Jim wasn't boasting. He was simply stating fact. Luke handed him a gla.s.s and indicated a chair. After they were seated, he said, ”What did she do today?”
”Not much. She called on the Countess of Chesney for perhaps ten minutes and then the d.u.c.h.ess of Avendale. She went to the milliner for a new hat, which is being made, and she went to order a new gown. Apparently she plans to attend some ball. I'm working on acquiring the details. She returned home around two and was there until you picked her up this evening.”
Luke pondered the information while Jim sipped his whiskey.
”You do realize her father is infirmed and her brother traveling the world?” Jim inquired.
Luke nodded. ”I'd heard something about that.”
”I think there's something there.”
”What do you mean?”
”Her father is too ill to properly see after his estates, and his son is off seeing to his own pleasures? I think I need to investigate that.”
”I don't care about her father or her brother. Concentrate on the girl. She's all I care about.”
He realized what he'd said, considered rewording it, then decided against it. Making an issue of it would only serve to give his words credence they didn't deserve. He took a long swallow of the whiskey. It was tempting, but he couldn't afford to overindulge in spirits tonight.
”What if the answer concerns her father or brother?”
Luke sighed. ”Do what you think best. Just find out who she wants me to kill and why.”
”What if she's the only one who knows?”
”She has to have told someone.”
”You didn't. Not until the deed was done.”
”Not true. I told someone.” Jack. His confessor in all things. And more often than not, his conspirator.
”Jack. You told Jack. You always trusted him more than you trusted the rest of us.”
”He's the one who found me, s.h.i.+vering, starving, wretchedly afraid. I daresay I'd have died if he'd not taken care of me, taken me to Feagan.”
”You know as well as I that Feagan paid us for recruitments. You were merely threepence in Jack's pocket.”
”Are you jealous of my friends.h.i.+p with Jack?”
”Don't be absurd. But you speak as though his motives in rescuing you were pure. Nothing about Jack is pure.”
”He saved your a.r.s.e on more than one occasion.”
”And I like him, but I don't trust him, not completely.”
”With our upbringing, with what we learned about the world, do you think any of us completely trusts anyone?”
”I trust you. I'd follow you into h.e.l.l without questioning why we were going.”
”You've just made my point, because I'm the least trustworthy of us all. No one can be completely trusted. No one's motives are pure. Which brings us back to Catherine Mabry. Find out all you can about her.”
Because Luke had a feeling she was leading him straight into h.e.l.l, but unlike Jim, Luke wanted to know why.
Luke downed his whiskey and got up to pour himself another gla.s.s.
”How did the lesson go?” Jim asked as he walked over and held out his gla.s.s.
Luke splashed some whiskey into it. ”Catherine won't speak of it. She said I'll see the results when I see the results. She vexes me as I've never been vexed. Do you know she actually had the audacity to question my selection of a wife? She's impertinent. I've never known a woman such as her.” He rubbed his brow. ”She makes my head hurt.”
”You've always been troubled with head pains.”
”It's been awhile. I've some powder to relieve it. Not to worry.”
Jim set down his gla.s.s. ”I'll be off then. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have more luck.”
”Perhaps we both will.”
Chapter 7.
”I have it on good authority that Mr. Marcus Langdon has filed a bill in the Court of Chancery in order to reclaim his English estates. It is a start toward reclaiming his rightful t.i.tle,” Lady Charlotte said.
Catherine and Winnie, along with the Countess of Chesney, were having afternoon tea in Lady Charlotte's garden. While she'd only recently had her coming out, her father, the Earl of Mill-bank, was most anxious for her to marry. Who could blame him? She was the first of four gossipy daughters, which was one of the reasons she had frequent visitors. She seemed to know things before most people did.
”Then you mustn't do anything to discourage his interest,” the Countess of Chesney said.
Lady Charlotte smiled knowingly. Obviously her good authority was Mr. Langdon himself. Catherine had seen them dancing together at b.a.l.l.s and walking through Hyde Park. Still, she hadn't realized Lady Charlotte's interest in the unt.i.tled gentleman was so intense.
”But the Crown has already declared Lucian Langdon as the rightful earl,” Catherine felt a need to point out. She knew Mr. Langdon-he was quite social-and she liked him well enough. He was no doubt the rightful earl. Lucian Langdon had not denied the truth of that matter, to her at least. But still she had a difficult time imagining Marcus Langdon as earl. Or perhaps it was simply that she couldn't see Lucian Langdon as not being earl.
”Mr. Langdon's contention is that King William was deceived, and being quite up in years-he was seventy at the time, after all-he was taken advantage of. Queen Victoria can set the matter to rights. If Mr. Marcus Langdon can simply get the courts to recognize that the property is truly his, then he will have the weight of the courts behind him when he pet.i.tions Her Majesty.”